Ajax Array to PHP issue

Question

Im having difficulties when parsing an array using Ajax to PHP to send an email with the values from the array.

Ajax code:

 $(document).ready(function(){
 $("#submit-button").click(function(){
 var countryArray = ['Location Zero', 'Location One', 'Location Two'];
 dataString = countryArray; 
 var jsonString = JSON.stringify(dataString);
 $.ajax({
 type: "POST",
 url: "sendmail.php",
 data: {countries: jsonString},
 success: function (msg) {
 $("#errors").text("Thank you for getting in touch, we will get back to you!");
 },
 error: function (msg) {
 $("#errors").text("Error sending email, please try again.");
 alert("error");
 }
 });
});
});

PHP code:

<?php
 $to = "[email protected]";
 $countries = json_decode($_POST['countries']);
 $header = "Content-Type: text/html\r\nReply-To: \r\nFrom: <>";
 $subject = "Email from the Lister customer";
 $body = @"$countries";
 if(mail($to, $subject, $body, $header)) {
 die("true"); 
 } else {
 die("There was an error sending the email."); 
 }
?>

But all I'm getting with in the email from $countries is word "Array" instead of the values.

Can anyone help please?

• Joe: $countries is an array so use implode(", ", $countries); to print it as a string.
• Marc B: @"$countries"? don't suppress errors, and don't use cargo-cult programming...
• medzi: thanks you guys, that all works perfectly now :)
• gabrielhilal: possible duplicate of PHP: Implode array values?

Answer 1

$countries is an array. If you want it to be displayed as a list in your $body, you can do:

$body = implode(', ', $countries);

Please also try not to suppress (@) PHP errors, it'll cause you more headaches in the future.

Answer 2

<?php
 $to = "[email protected]";
 $countries = json_decode($_POST['countries']);
 $header = "Content-Type: text/html\r\nReply-To: \r\nFrom: <>";
 $subject = "Email from the Lister customer";
 $body = implode(", ", $countries);
 if(mail($to, $subject, $body, $header)) {
 die("true"); 
 } else {
 die("There was an error sending the email."); 
 }
?>

• medzi: @YogeshSuthar I know, it just wouldn't let me accept it straight away. I had to wait a while. But all done now :)

Answer 3

If you're using jquery, try using .serializeArray() instead of stringify.

Also, when receiving the $_POST['contries'] variables, you need to implode it. Try this:

$(document).ready(function(){
 $("#submit-button").click(function(){
 var countryArray = ['Location Zero', 'Location One', 'Location Two'];
 $.ajax({
 type: "POST",
 url: "sendmail.php",
 data: {countries: countryArray.serializeArray()},
 success: function (msg) {
 $("#errors").text("Thank you for getting in touch, we will get back to you!");
 },
 error: function (msg) {
 $("#errors").text("Error sending email, please try again.");
 alert("error");
 }
 });
 });
});

And then in PHP use this to properly grab the countries values:

implode(', '.$countries);